Description of Computer Programs for the Analysis and Presentation of Trade Winds Data

摘要

An investigation of the Trade Wind Duct was carried out from March 6 through March 25, 1969 in the Northern part of the Caribbean Sea. An instrumented aircraft was used to record meteorological and radio refractivity data in digitized format for computer analysis. In addition, extensive radiosonde data was included in the analysis to support the aircraft measurements and provide a basis for weather analysis. In order to assimilate, process and present such a large amount of data it was imperative that machine processing be used. The following report describes the various programs which were used in the analysis and presentation of the data. A ray-tracing program was also developed to analyze radio wave propagation in relation to Trade Wind Duct characteristics. This program has the advantage that horizontal changes in the Duct can be included. Most ray-tracing programs assume that the vertical variation of refractivity is spherically stratified. (Author)